Most hospital casualty departments met a government target while being monitored - but performance plummeted the following week, it emerged today.

Most hospital casualty departments met a government target while being monitored - but performance plummeted the following week, it emerged today.

At the end of March this year the Government carried out a week-long audit of all A&E departments in England.

The aim was to see how many achieved its target that 90pc of people should wait no more than four hours from arrival to admission or discharge.

The BMA sent questionnaires to a random sample of consultants in 95 of the 207 A&E departments in England. Preliminary results, which were released last month, showed two thirds of departments had made special arrangements to meet targets during the week. This involved cancelling routine operations, bringing in temporary staff, or working double shifts.

Today the BMA released details of the survey, which showed that in the week prior to the audit, 55pc would have met the four hour target. In the week of monitoring 85pc of those surveyed achieved this goal, but the next week the figure fell to 63pc.